S. Florida`s Haitians Set To `Vote`

Over the next week, Haitians living in South Florida will send their prayers, their hopes and even their political opinions back to their troubled homeland, which is scheduled next Sunday to hold its first presidential election in 30 years.

The election, the first since the Duvalier family took power in 1957, has caught not only the attention of those who will participate, but of expatriate Haitians as well.

South Florida radio stations -- particularly WAVS in Davie, WLQY in Hollywood, and WVCG in Coral Gables -- have been broadcasting a stream of election news, along with paid programs on behalf of various candidates.

Under Haiti`s new constitution, Haitians living abroad are entitled to vote, but the election commission has no money to implement absentee voting, said Carmelau Monestime, a Haitian community leader in Miami.

So Monestime has organized a symbolic vote for South Florida. Today, in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties, Haitians will go to the polls to express their presidential preference.

``We`re definitely looking for a lot of people,`` said Chantel Thomas of the Haitian American Center in West Palm Beach.

Thomas said that she expects more than 5,000 Haitians in the West Palm Beach and Lake Worth areas to go to the polls.

About 5,000 Haitians are expected in the Delray Beach area as well, Thomas said.

The point of holding the symbolic vote a week before the actual election is ``to show the Haitian people in Haiti, this is who we support,`` said Michael Jeannot, who is coordinating the mock election in Broward County.

In Palm Beach County, polls will be open today from noon to 6 p.m. at the Bethel Baptist Church at 809 SW Eighth Ave. in Delray Beach and at the IBO Express Co. Inc. at 167 NE Second Ave. in Delray Beach. In West Palm Beach, the polls will be at the Haitian American Community Center at 3359 Belvedere Road, Suite A.

To vote, local Haitian community leaders are asking that voters be at least 18, have a legal form of identification and fill out a special registration form, Thomas said.

About 80,000 Haitians live in the South Florida area, according to the Notre Dame D`Haiti mission in Miami. About 15,000 Haitians live in Palm Beach County, with another 15,000 in Broward County, and about 55,000 live in Dade County.

Most Haitians came to the United States between 1978 and 1981, crowded aboard rickety boats as they fled poverty and oppression. Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.